The case involved two neighbors. Neighbor (defendant) built a new home which required excavation and recompaction. This process resulted in severing the roots from a 60+ year old Pinus halepensis. The result was a hazardous tree condition. The case was presented in Malibu Superior Court and the jury ruled in plaintiff's favor and awarded him $451,000...

This was a very interesting case and I was fortunate to be the lead expert for the plaintiff. It is our hope that this case will help the entire green industry in it's effort to protect and maintain trees from unnecessary damage and distruction.

Reply to post by Glenn Asakawa, on March 09, 2003 at 12:49:25:

Glenn wrote: "The case involved two neighbors. Neighbor (defendant) built a new home which required excavation and recompaction. This process resulted in severing the roots from a 60+ year old Pinus halepensis. The result was a hazardous tree condition. The case was presented in Malibu Superior Court and the jury ruled in plaintiff's favor and awarded him $451,000..."

Thanks Glenn for sharing this news. That may be some kind of record. Can you send a link to the newspaper account?

"This was a very interesting case and I was fortunate to be the lead expert for the plaintiff. It is our hope that this case will help the entire green industry in it's effort to protect and maintain trees from unnecessary damage and distruction."

It may help a lot if it survives appeal.
Even if your paid work is done on this, please keep track of it so we know what the final figure turns out to be. That's the one that matters.

Reply to post by Glenn Asakawa, on March 09, 2003 at 12:49:25:

That is quite a bit for 1 tree. Can you give us more details such as how you arrived at such an appraised value, what method, how much the entire property was worth, an opposing experts appraisal, a jury or judge trial, did the tree die, etc. etc. etc.

Thank you!!!

lew

Reply to post by Glenn Asakawa, on March 09, 2003 at 12:49:25:

In addition to the questions posed by Lew, can you tell us what portions of the award was tree value vs. other damages? And the case citation?

Thanks.